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Bilingual remarks pronounced by Handicap International Canada’s Executive Director at Global Affairs Canada on April 13, 2016, as invited by the Minister of International Development and La Francophonie.

Handicap International has set up a logistics hub in response to the crisis in Central Africa to make it easier for humanitarian organizations to access vulnerable people in isolated areas of the country.

Present in Cuba since 1998, Handicap International works to improve the living conditions of people with disabilities and promote their inclusion in communities.

Sayed is a six-year-old boy from Afghanistan with an irresistible smile. When he was five, he was injured by an improvised mine – one of many victim-activated devices that regularly kill and maim people in Afghanistan. After Sayed’s left leg was amputated, he was immediately treated by Handicap International and he is steadily regaining his autonomy.

Since 1996, Handicap International manages a physical rehabilitation centre in Kandahar, in southern Afghanistan. This centre is the only one providing comprehensive services to disabled people across the whole region. We visit the centre with Rasool, the officer in charge of the activities of Handicap International in the Kandahar province.

Handicap International has distributed winter kits containing clothes, mattresses and blankets to vulnerable families in Nepal who lost everything in the earthquake of April 2015. Ten months after, the organisation continues to supply aid to victims of the disaster.

On the occasion of the International Day of Mine Awareness on April 4, Handicap International, which shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for its mobilization against landmines, wants to recall the scale of the task and the necessary mobilization of the entire international community to address this issue.

The Arms Trade Treaty was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 2 April 2013. This treaty stipulates that a country may not export conventional arms to another country if there is any risk of them being used to commit acts of genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes. This is an important step in the fight against weapons proliferation. Handicap International is working in 20 countries to raise awareness of the risks posed by small arms and explosive remnants of war.

The conflict that tore Casamance apart for thirty years is now over. However, anti-personnel mines still pose a threat to civilian lives. Alongside its mine clearance operations, Handicap International is also working with its partner, the ASVM (Senegalese Association of Mine Victims), to inform and raise the population's awareness of the risks of mines. Over an eight-month period, awareness-raising sessions will be held in 60 schools and 65 villages. 

For one year now Yemen has been torn apart by a conflict that has killed over 3,000 civilians. The humanitarian needs are immense. Since last October, Handicap International has been providing care for the injured. Over 1,200 people have already been helped by the organisation. 

Thirty-one-year-old Fatou Diaw has found and destroyed over 50 mines in her impressive seven-year career. Equally at ease with probes, metal detectors and slashers, she knows demining back to front. Below she describes how her work became her passion. 

The sun has just come up. After the team has loaded up the equipment, Aziz, Handicap International's Head of Demining Operations, motivates the troops and reminds them of the day's objective: demining the village of Diagnon, located around fifty kilometres out of Ziguinchor. 

Nirmala, 8, has sparkling eyes. After losing her right leg following the earthquake which struck Nepal in April 2015, she underwent a long period of rehabilitation with the support of Humanity & Inclusion (HI) physiotherapists. Today, she is walking again on her prosthetic leg and obsessed with just one thing: becoming an actress.

Aged just thirteen years old, the war has already taken a heavy toll on Firas. In 2012, he fell victim to a bomb. His injuries required the amputation of his right leg and he continues to have problems with his left foot. With the assistance of Humanity & Inclusion (HI), Firas has been provided with a prosthesis which has given him back his independence. 

On April 8th 2015, Hamza Al-Sisawi attended the Mine Action Day celebrations at UNRWA’s Khan Younis Training Centre in Gaza. He was particularly happy to be there – he and his family narrowly avoided disaster after their home was contaminated by unexploded ordnance (UXO) in the recent crisis.